


Wymack's Son

by Autumnalhogwarts



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 13:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16242347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumnalhogwarts/pseuds/Autumnalhogwarts
Summary: The conversation Between Kevin and Wymack in The Kings Men, from Wymack's perspective. Originally posted on Tumblr.





	Wymack's Son

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure Nora said something about Kayleigh and David not being in an exclusive relationship so it wouldn't have been cheating but I don't feel like that so I ignored it

Kevin Day. Son of Exy. Son of Kayleigh Day. Starting Stricker, #2, The Foxhole Court.

  
Kevin Day. Son of David Wymack.

  
That last part wasn’t known by anyone. Least of all David Wymack himself.

  
     Kevin came to the Foxes from the Ravens a mess of a boy. Barely 20 years old and his life was already over, there was no way he was ever going to recover from a shattered hand. Even if he did, there was no way that he was ever going to play again. Kevin Day ran to the only person he knew they would let him run to. The only problem was he didn’t have the proof. No one would believe the story of a broken 20-year-old boy with no career, no future. He’d left injured and alone, not able to pack even a small bag. He showed up at Wymack’s door in the middle of the night with only the clothes on his back, a mess of a hand, and his wallet.

 

* * *

  
David Wymack. Son of a bitch. Son of a bastard. Head coach, the Foxhole Court.

  
     He built his team from the ground up after learning Exy from the love of his life, the creator of the sport. He’d been damaged goods from a young age and felt like he’d deserved it when she left. Even if the baby wasn’t his. His offer of marriage thrown in his face. Picking himself up out of the gutter was his only life skill at that point. If he could give himself a million second chances, he could give anyone else just as many. That’s what he tried to do for the foxes, though they tried as hard as they could to test his patients.

 

* * *

  
     Wymack reminded himself every day that Kayleigh’s son was not his son. He thought he saw a family resemblance: the boy had his skin, just a shade too dark to be a tan; his smile, just a bit too tight to be genuine; and his attitude, just a bit too strong to be learned. But whenever he thought he saw these things he chastised himself repeating “that’s not your son” over and over until he believed it.

  
     When Kevin showed up at his door in the middle of the night he cursed Kayleigh Day and whoever the hell this kid’s father was for letting it get this far. At 20 Kevin believed he’d outlived his usefulness because he couldn’t play a goddamn sport anymore. Wymack didn’t think a second chance was going to help this time. He didn’t think physical therapy would help either after talking to Abby. This kid was going to have to hit rock bottom alone, and there was nothing he could do about it. But he’d sure as Fuck be there to pick up the pieces when it happened since no one else would be.

  
     After 20 years of healing from the only women he’d ever considered marrying Wymack had the fact that she had cheated on him sitting on his couch so broken that he couldn’t even cry. The worst day of his life was the day that she sat him down and said that the baby wasn’t his. He’d still proposed, but her bags were already loaded into the car and she refused to say where she was going. He found out later but never bothered to reach out again. She made her choice and he was going to respect it if it killed him. He knew he wasn’t good enough for her, yet she had never seemed to care about that fact until that day.

 

* * *

  
     A miracle happened, and Kevin learned how to play with his right hand well enough to be a starting Striker just months after an injury that should have killed his chance of setting foot on a court again. Not only did he play, he managed to regain his spot as the second-best NCAA Striker by the end of the year. By then Kevin Day’s problems were the least of his worries, a small boy made of lies had taken over the Foxhole Court and Wymack spent all his time trying to keep the damn kid out of trouble.  
That is until the little fucker was kidnapped. Everything changed after that.

  
     Neil came home from that event somehow less broken than ever before and wanting to take a family road trip. Wymack was in his office fielding calls from what felt like everyone in the state. When Neil entered his office, he’d been scheduling a visit to recruit players for next year. The conversation went well and Neil left looking hopeful and frightened of his new future as a real person. Then Kevin came in.

  
Kevin walked in, sat down, picked up a recruitment file, and started reading without saying a word. He was busy and didn’t have time to deal with his team’s usual antics, but Kevin looked like he was going to throw up so he left him to read for a minute.

  
“Do you need something Day?” he said after about two minutes of silence.

  
“Yeah… umm… since I’m announcing who my father is to the world next week I,” Kevin stopped there searching for the words to continue, “I thought I should talk to you first.”

  
“Okay, we can go over what you’re going to say when you get back, go enjoy your break kid,” Wymack said confused. As far as he was concerned this conversation could wait until after the break. He didn’t need a name to but to Kayleigh’s cheating. To Kevin’s useless, deadbeat father.

  
“No I don’t think it can. You need to know,” at this point, Kevin took a letter out of his pocket and played with it, “I don’t know much about your relationship with my mom, she just said you were someone she taught exy to, but.. umm… she wrote a letter to the master when she was pregnant and I have it here”.

  
“Your mom and I were together for a long time, but she, she cheated and when I proposed she packed up and left,” Wymack explained, then rubbed his face with both hands, “she left that very day”.

  
Kevin froze not knowing how to explain if that’s what he really thought. His next words came rushing out without a breath, by the time he was done he felt dizzy.

  
     Shoving the letter onto Wymack’s desk he said “that’s not exactly what happened, she never cheated on you, at least I don’t think he did, she loved you so much that she didn’t want you to throw your life away just because she got pregnant, so she lied and left as soon as she could, so you wouldn’t find out. You’re my father”.

  
     When Kevin went silent Wymack opened the letter and read exactly what he had just heard. He was in fact Kevin’s father. The useless deadbeat fucker he’d hated for the last year and a half for leaving Kevin alone in the world was himself. He stared at the letter thinking about all the times he’d thought he saw himself in Kevin. The way Kevin skin was never quite pale enough to be considered white, the way he smiled like he actually wanted to yell, the harshness he saved for himself. He should have known. That she was lying when she said she cheated. That the broken boy who ran to him was actually running home.

  
“What. The. Fuck.” was all he could manage.

  
“I wanted to tell you the day I came here but I didn’t have the letter, Neil stole it back when he was there and he just told me he had it. I didn’t think you’d believe me if I didn’t have proof, a cripple with no hope to play again has every reason to lie,” Kevin said thinking Wymack was upset with him.

  
     After a deep breath to calm himself down and then another to give him time to find the right words. And then a third to give him strength he responded “Kevin, S… s… son, I would have believed you. I will always believe you. I may not be good at this stuff but that doesn’t mean I don’t care”.

  
Kevin stared down at his shaking hands refusing to meet his father’s gaze.

  
     “You were my saving grace, even when I thought you weren’t mine, even when she left,” he continued, “I offered to marry her AFTER she told me you weren’t mine. I didn’t care. I was not going to let a child grow up fatherless no matter what. When she left I was devastated and I threw myself into Exy. That’s how this all started,” he gestured around the room, “I had to let her go, so I built a place that kids could come to when the world gave up on them. I refused to give up. This. This is all because I lost you”  
Kevin looked up at that, mouth slightly open like he wanted to speak, but he couldn’t find the words.

  
     “I read about Kevin Day. The Best Striker. The orphan boy. And I.. I… When you showed up at my door I had to remind myself that you weren’t my son. I kept seeing myself in you and every time I did I’d curse whoever the fuck your father was for doing this to you,” his face was absent of all emotion as he talked, but his constant blinking showed that it was a ruse.

  
     He looked Kevin over. Usually, he was a tall muscular man with an air of superiority and arrogance, but sitting curled up in that chair playing with his shaking hands he was a scared little boy asking his absent father for a chance. Once again Kevin refused to meet his eye.

  
     “Look at me. Kevin, look at me,” Wymack said as he waited for Kevin to do what he asked before continuing. With Kevin looking directly at him he said “The media is going to be all over this, I’ll have to get a DNA test for them. I need to know that you are okay with this being public, that you’re not being forced into anything”.

  
“Its fine,” was all Kevin could manage in a small voice.

  
“It’s fine? God, you’ve been spending too much time with Neil. If this is settled, then get out of here. I’m pissed right now and I don’t want to say something I’ll regret later. Go enjoy your vacation,” Wymack said in a falsely calm voice.

  
     After sitting in silence for a couple minutes Kevin got up and left. He left thinking that his father was angry with him and scared about what would happen next. Wymack watched Kevin go, then laid his head on his desk dreading the day that he had met Kayleigh. He knew that every lie she had told him was because he would have given up his career for her baby, she had done it to protect him. But the end result, 20 years later, countless years after her death was so much worse than a lost career. A fractured boy scared of telling his own father he existed. A boy who endured years of unimaginable psychological torture. Wymack could have saved just as many kids as a high school exy coach. Or he could have saved just one child and got any job, so long as that child had been Kevin. In the 20 years of healing he had done after Kayleigh left he had gone from hating her to feeling sorry for her, now he was back to hating her again and would for the rest of his life. She had done the one thing he could not forgive.

  
She had hurt Kevin Day.


End file.
